God Enters The Journalism Business

The Waco Tribune Herald is now operating under new ownership, having been sold by the Cox newspaper chain to the Clifton Robinson family.

The first edition under the Robinsons came out yesterday, and there was at least one noticeable change: The front page now includes the slogan "In God We Trust."

In terms of stirring journalistic calls-to-arms, it's not quite up there with "All the News That's Fit to Print," but it's certainly very Waco-riffic.

"It's time for a change, and hopefully our values and opinions will be well received by our advertisers and readers," Robinson Media chairman Clifford Robinson wrote. "It will come about slowly but surely with the first change being printed on this paper's front page, where it will remain during the tenure of our ownership: In God we trust."

Robinson's son Gordon, president of the company, offered his own introduction to readers and made it clear where the paper is headed:

The biggest imprint that my father and I can have on this newspaper will not come on the news page, but on our opinion page.

Toward that end, we intend to champion more conservative views in our unsigned editorials, and we intend to ferret out more conservative voices in our columns.

Yeah, if it's one thing the old Tribune Herald was known for, it was its incessant liberal blathering on the opinion pages. That, and its utter refusal to trust in God loudly and publicly.

Don't worry, though: The new Tribune Herald is not going to be all stuffy. "But we also want to have some fun," Gordon Robinson wrote. "One of our objectives is to search out and publish humorous human-interest stories written in a manner that our readers can look forward to reading. Humor, after all, is food for our souls."

Reader's Digest, look out!! And if you're a freelancer in Central Texas with a trove of humorous anecdotes about slightly long-winded preachers, or kids who say the darnedest things, get the Tribune Herald on your speed dial now. They're looking.